The Northern New Jersey Jewish Academy (NNJJA)(Link to NNJJA pages) is a consortium Religious School with five area congregations currently participating: Temple Israel in Ridgewood, Temple Beth Sholom in Fair Lawn, Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, Kol HaNeshama in Englewood, and Temple Emmanuel of North Jersey in Franklin Lakes. Classes are held at Temple Israel, however, special events, such as the Purim Carnival and Hanukkah party, rotate among the participating congregations. NNJJA provides formal Jewish education for children ages three through thirteen and is affiliated with both the Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies and Prozdor – the supplemental high school of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The course of study offered through NNJJA provides our students with academic and experiential knowledge of Jewish tradition, culture, prayer, history and Torah.

School Committee Fundraiser: Gift cards to Shoprite, A & P, Stop & Shop, Fairway and Pathmark are now available. It won’t cost you a dime and you’ll be helping support the religious education of our young people! To purchase, contact Denis Vogel at denis.s.vogel@gmail.com.

Pre-Kindergarten - Second Grades

The free pre-school program for children ages four to six meets monthly for two-hour sessions over the course of the year. It is open to the children of both members and non-members. The Sunday program for Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade is also open to members' and non-members' children and meets for two hours on Sunday mornings. Learning at this stage is achieved through age-appropriate stories, songs and craft projects.

Kitah Alef-Kitah Hey (Third-Seventh Grades)

The five-year Religious School program (3rd-through-7th grades) is open exclusively to children whose families are affiliated with one of the consortium congregations.

Students attend twice a week for a total of five hours weekly. Kitah Aleph, 3rd-grade, through Kitah Gimmel, 5th-grade, currently attend after public school on Wednesday afternoons and on Sunday mornings. Students in Kitah Dalet and Kitah Hey (6th-and 7th-graders) are on a Tuesday/Sunday schedule. The curriculum at this stage is rich in both frontal classroom instruction and hands-on, experiential workshops and special programming that lays a strong foundation in ritual skills, customs, culture, Bible study and Hebrew language. In addition, to earn their diplomas, our older students (Kitahs Dalet and Hey) must complete a supplemental community service project of their own choosing, which drives home the Jewish ethical and moral values of Tikkun Olam and Chesed, the responsibility we all have to one another and to the world at-large.

Beyond what is required, NNJJA students in 4th through 7th grades may enhance their Jewish literacy in Torah Club. Every week, this group gathers with Cantor Bromberg to learn how to leyn Torah, well in advance of their bar or bat mitzvah year.

One goal of Temple Israel’s youth education program is to whet the appetite for further learning. We strongly encourage NNJJA graduates to continue their formal Jewish educations at one of two excellent supplemental high school programs that admit students in eighth grade: the Bergen County High School for Jewish Studies in Hackensack (http://www.bchsjs.org/) and the Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York (http://www.jtsa.edu/Academics/Ivry_Prozdor_High_School.xml). Please visit their websites for complete information.